A 'Disturbing Pattern' of Deadly Army Black Hawk Crashes Has Lawmakers Asking Questions

[rangerrebew]

A 'Disturbing Pattern' of Deadly Army Black Hawk Crashes Has Lawmakers Asking Questions
 
Military.com | By Matthew Cox

A Democratic senator from New York has called on the new defense secretary to investigate a "disturbing pattern" of UH-60 Black Hawk crashes that have claimed the lives of nine Army National Guard soldiers since December 2019.

"Three crashes involving the National Guard's use of the UH-60 in just over a year raises significant concerns about a systemic issue with the Black Hawk helicopter operation cycle," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote in a Feb. 5 letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Gillibrand's letter follows two Black Hawk crashes this year, one that killed three Idaho Guard pilots Feb. 2 and one that killed three New York Guard pilots Jan. 20. An earlier Black Hawk crash on Dec. 5, 2019, killed three Minnesota Guard soldiers.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/02/10/disturbing-pattern-of-deadly-army-black-hawk-crashes-has-lawmakers-asking-questions.html

[PeteS in CA]

"Operation cycle"? Like the defense budget slashes curtailing maintenance and forcing the use of aging, inadequately maintained UH-60s? Or maybe defense budget slashes cutting back on training, resulting in pilots being a little rusty?

Defense budgets should be spent wisely, and there is plenty of room for improvement. But as has been shown time after time after time after ... slashing defense budgets to fund social programs kills military personnel.